Who Writes This Content
All content on MTWL Media is written or directly supervised by Mark Claiborne — worship leader, guitar teacher, and band director with over 16 years of experience leading music in church and live settings. Mark has taught adult beginners one-on-one since 2010 and performs regularly across rock, blues, R&B, funk, and contemporary Christian music. The teaching methods and opinions expressed on this site reflect his direct experience, not secondhand research.
MTWL Media does not publish guest posts or outsource content to writers without direct expertise in the topic.
Source Standards
Every factual claim on this site is either sourced or clearly identified as personal experience. We follow a tiered sourcing standard:
- Tier 1: Academic research, university publications, and peer-reviewed music education materials. Preferred for theory claims and learning science.
- Tier 2: Established publishers (Hal Leonard, Alfred Music), major music education platforms (Musical U, Music Theory Academy), and long-standing gear publications.
- Tier 3: Reputable niche sites (Guitar Chalk, Guitar Lobby) used for supplementary data points, always clearly attributed.
We do not fabricate statistics. If a number appears in an article, it links to a verifiable source. Statistics are cited with the publisher name, article title, and retrieval date. If a source is no longer available at its original URL, we note that in the citation.
Affiliate Links
Some articles on MTWL Media contain affiliate links — primarily to zZounds and Reverb. When you click these links and make a purchase, MTWL Media may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Affiliate relationships do not influence editorial recommendations. We only link to gear that Mark has personally used, gigged with, or would recommend to a student. All affiliate links are disclosed at the point of use in the article and marked rel="nofollow".
AI Transparency
MTWL Media uses AI writing tools as part of the drafting and editing process. All content is reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by Mark Claiborne before publication. Personal quotes, teaching anecdotes, and first-hand observations are Mark's own — AI tools do not generate these. Statistics are verified against primary sources regardless of how the draft was produced.
We do not publish AI-generated content without human editorial review and approval.
Corrections Policy
If you find a factual error — a wrong statistic, a misattributed quote, or outdated information — we want to know. Contact us at the link below with the article title, the specific claim in question, and a source that supports the correction. We review all correction requests and update articles when errors are confirmed. Corrected articles are marked with an updated date.
To request a correction or report an inaccuracy, use our contact page. Include the article title and the specific claim you'd like us to review.
Independence
MTWL Media is independently owned and operated by Mark Claiborne. We have no editorial agreements with gear manufacturers, publishers, or any third party that would influence what gets covered or how. Sponsored content, if ever published, will be clearly labeled as such.